“There are friends, I think we can't imagine living without. People who are sisters to us, or brothers. Jimmy was one of those. I never thought I might have to go through life without him. I never thought he might be killed by a drunken driver or anything else. Who thinks about things like that when you're seventeen? If I had known ahead of time what was going to happen to him, I would have gone crazy. I guess I did go a little crazy. My Aunt Lo, who's a hospital psychiatrist, says grief travels a certain route-that if you could plot it out on a map you'd have a line that twists and weaves and eventually ends up near the point of departure. I say "near" because althoughyou may survive the grief, you won't ever be exactly the same. It took me a long time to learn that, and sometimes the whole experience comes back on me and I have to learn it all over again.”

“ "Even with your face in such a state, I can see you are quite lovely. I'j used to certain...standards. You will look good traveling on my arem, as part of my entourage."His words make me want to hurl."You may find I am not the monster you imagine.""Oh, no, " I say. "I bet you're a real prince.""King, actually," he says with a slow grin." ”

“What am I without him? My heart is burnt out, void, like the cold remnant left after a supernova.”

“Why didn’t you run? I tried to buy you some time. You should’ve gone ahead.” ”Are you crazy? I couldn’t leave you to that thing. Now, come on.”I took his hand, tugging him off the post while glancing nervously at the frozen dragon. “Let’s get out of here. I think that thing just blinked at us.”.His fingers tightened on mine and pulled me forward. Startled and overbalanced, I looked up at him, and then he was kissing me.”

“That's what it's all about–knowing what you have to lose, but risking the loss anyway.”

“I have known him nearly all my life, and I am going to marry him, so that there won't ever be a time when I shan't know him.”

“It reminds me of that old joke- you know, a guy walks into a psychiatrist's office and says, hey doc, my brother's crazy! He thinks he's a chicken. Then the doc says, why don't you turn him in? Then the guy says, I would but I need the eggs. I guess that's how I feel about relationships. They're totally crazy, irrational, and absurd, but we keep going through it because we need the eggs.”